Effect of water vapour absorption on hydroxyl temperatures measured from Svalbard

• Published in: Annales Geophysicae
• Main Authors: J. M. Chadney, D. K. Whiter, B. S. Lanchester
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2017
• Subjects: Science; Q; Physics; QC1-999; Geophysics. Cosmic physics; QC801-809; Svalbard
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-35-481-2017; https://doaj.org/article/cbd1eefa9368441797451b9b8bd7ef42

We model absorption by atmospheric water vapour of hydroxyl airglow emission using the HIgh-resolution TRANsmission molecular absorption database (HITRAN2012). Transmission coefficients are provided as a function of water vapour column density for the strongest OH Meinel emission lines in the (8–3), (5–1), (9–4), (8–4), and (6–2) vibrational bands. These coefficients are used to determine precise OH(8–3) rotational temperatures from spectra measured by the High Throughput Imaging Echelle Spectrograph (HiTIES), installed at the Kjell Henriksen Observatory (KHO), Svalbard. The method described in this paper also allows us to estimate atmospheric water vapour content using the HiTIES instrument.